Human Behavior for Social Work Practice ─ A Developmental-Ecological Framework

Contemporary social workers continue to face growing challenges of complex and diverse issues such as child maltreatment, poverty, unemployment, oppression, violence, mental illness, and end-of-life care across varied contexts. Wendy L. Haight and Edward H. Taylor present their book Human Behavior for Social Work Practice, Second Edition as a core text that will help students implement a consistent framework through which to approach multifaceted social issues in any environment, whether it be in inner city schools or rural nursing homes with individuals of different ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status.

Human Behavior for Social Work Practice, Second Edition uses the developmental, ecological-systems perspective as an analytic tool to show students how social scientific evidence helps us understand human development and enhances social work practice. Students will learn that by effectively connecting theory to practice, they can develop successful strategies to use as they encounter complex issues currently facing social workers.

The authors have reorganized and expanded this new edition to better illustrate developmental thinking in social work practice throughout the lifespan. This book also now includes special topic chapters on human brain development and the increasing relevance of neuroscience to social work practice as well as important social justice issues specific to race and gender that occur throughout the lifespan. Also new to this edition, Haight and Taylor have developed instructor's materials that can be tailored to include the social work experience of the instructor. It is comprehensive so that no additional resources are needed, and it is dynamically structured so information can be added where relevant to the course material.

Wendy L. Haight (PhD, University of Chicago) is professor and holds the Gamble-Skogmo Chair in Child Welfare and Youth Policy, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus. The focus of her career has been to build a more culture-inclusive understanding of diverse children's development and to use this understanding to enhance social work practice. This has required deeply and respectfully engaging with a variety of cultural perspectives and scrutinizing mainstream North American assumptions that undergird so much research in developmental psychology, education, and social work. She is author or coauthor of eight books including Raise Up a Child: Human Development in an African American Family, also available from Lyceum.

Edward H. Taylor (MSW, University of Denver; PhD, University of Southern California, Los Angeles) is associate professor and director of the University of British Columbia-Okanagan School of Social Work. Previously he served as associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, and chief of social work for the Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, and he spent ten years as a clinical social worker and researcher with the National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program. Throughout his career, Taylor has specialized in assessing, treating, and researching children and young adults with severe mental disorders.